Types of Fishing Vessels – Nerd Talk for the Avid Seafarer

Fishing vessels are the very backbone of the marine industry. As with any subject, there is a wide number of fishing vessels, all of which satisfy different purposes.

1

Trawlers

Trawlers do not operate in the deep sea, contrary to popular belief. Trawlers have fishing nets which are hitched on to long metal rods. These fishing nets are then dragged through the water. Basically put, these fishing nets – which are made of nylon - are suspended between the seabed and the top of the water. The nylon is soft which means the nets do not always stay open. To work around this issue, the nets usually have heft chains attached at the ends of them. Of course, the lower these nets are dragged to, the higher the force required by the trawler to drag it forward. If you are looking for a true fishing experience, most Kalutara Hotels, the likes of Anantara Kalutara Resort would easily hook you up with a trawler so you can get a taste of it.

2

Seiners

Seiners are primarily used in the shallow regions of the sea or whatever water body. These fishing vessels are called seiners due to the fact that they make use of seine fishing nets. Seine nets, also referred to as dragnets, come in two different types; one is purse seines and the other is Danish seines. Seiners make use of advanced technology to find schools of fish where they can drop the dragnets and some of the vessels have bow thrusters. The purpose of this is so that the vessel can move in a circular manner about the shoal.

3

Longliners

Longliners are another common form of fishing vessel. It is a variant of the troller fishing technique. The biggest difference between the two is that while trollers make use of multiple fishing lines, longliners use one fishing line that has baited hooks attached to branch lines (known as snoods). The numbers of lines differ and depend on the size of the vessel, the size of the crew and the state of the equipment on board. These vessels target marine species like swordfishes and tunas to name a few. They are also quite versatile and can be used in different depths. For an instance, some longliners use anchors to drop the lines deep while some allow the line to drift around close to the surface of the water.

4

Factory ships

These are probably the most fascinating of vessels on this list. As the name implies, it is a factory on the water. The ship has all the facilities to process and freeze the catch of fishes or whales. Most modern day factory ships are old whalers that have since been converted into a more modern vessel. Of course, the concept of a factory ship has been in use for a long while. Back in the days, whalers would extract the whale oil on board the vessel and discard the carcass. As time went on, they started to make use of the carcass too. Factory ships follow the same concept, but with modern tech onboard.